It's Been TOOO Long...

So much has happened since April - it's hard to remember it all - but I'll make an attempt:

Blaine and I went down to Utah for our 20th Anniversary and returned to the Jordan River temple where we were married. We hadn't been back to that temple since we were married - it was a wonderful weekend!! Very peaceful, comforting, and relaxing. It was GREAT to be in a big city again...we went to a Brazilian restaurant, spent the day in the temple, ate at our favorite fast food places that aren't in Rexburg, went to a science musuem and the Gateway mall, and finished with going out to sushi with my brother! Most wonderful!!

Brandon went on vacation with family friends to the Washington coast at the end of the school year.

Brandon had his 16th Birthday on June 5 and Sarah turned 14 on June 6!

Blaine took part 2 of 3 for his Special Education teaching certificate and passed with a "DISTINGUISHED" score!!

Blaine interviewed for a teaching position at the High School and was offered a job to teach MATH!!!!! (Huge emotional and mental relief - after being out of work for nearly a year) MORE testing will now be required...

Sarah was riding double bareback on a horse and fell off head first onto the street...resulting in a 3" fracture in the thickest part of her skull and internal bleeding from a torn vein which caused a bloodclot. She spent two nights in the hospital and since then she has had a miraculous recovery and is blessed to be returning to her regular physical activities this week. Unfortunately she missed out on Girls Camp, Ballroom Dance Camp, our Youth Trek, and family vacation had to be postponed.

Kayla was promoted to shift manager at Burger King and has passed all of her tests to achieve that position!

All of our family (except Kayla) attended Marci's family reunion at the beginning of July and had a wonderful time - just across the border in WYOMING! It was great to see family from Missouri again.

Kayla has started dating other people again...

Brandon went to the National Scout Jamboree in Virginia accompanied by a US and Church History tour. He was gone for nearly 3 weeks and Matthew had to learn to get along without his older brother!! We all missed him much!

Blaine passed his MATH examination test to be certified to teach HS Math...he studied for only 6 weeks and passed!! On average it takes people one year to prepare for this test. HE IS AWESOME!! (And was very blessed too:) He is now certified to teach Elementary Education and Secondary Math. He has one final exam to study and complete by August 2011. After passing that test he will additionally be certified to teach Special Education.

Brandon started his first job at Burger King yesterday! He will be working nights and weekends and won't have time to even be THINKING about dating!!

Matthew will be starting Kindergarten next week and Brielle will be the only one left at home! She will be happy to stay with Aunt Erin during the day while everyone else is at work or school!

That's been our summer in a nutshell - very, very, BLESSED and HAPPY!!

TWENTY Years...and counting!

In a few short weeks (May 4), Blaine and I will be married 20 years - half my life!!

ONE more licensed driver

Hooray!!! Brandon passed his tests and is officially a licensed driver.

BALLROOM Dancing

Just a quick short post...(I can't believe it's been this long!!). Brandon and Sarah competed in ballroom dancing this weekend - for the first time they were able to be partners. They came home with 6 ribbons each - placing in 6 out of 10 entries. We are so proud of them!! I'll post pictures later.

Apostle, Dallin H. Oaks, comes to BYU-Idaho

Last week, President Dallin H. Oaks, one of the twelve apostles of our church, came to speak for our devotional on campus at BYU-Idaho where I work. It was a very interesting and quite sobering. For those of you who are not familiar with him - before he was called as an apostle, he received a law degree and has even served on the Utah Supreme Court in years past. He is very knowledgeable about our government and laws.

Family Reunion 2009

"When sisters travel cross country, you need more bars in more places!!"

"Bubba" (6-Erin's), Matthew (4-Marci's), Breklynn (5-Hillary's), Hayden (4-Erin's), Taycen (3-Hillary's), Brielle (2-Marci's), Mary (2-Shirley's), Lexi (1-Hillary's), and Wyatt (3 months-Erin's). Hillary and Erin are holding up their youngest - I'm sure the 2 teenage girls were busy packing out luggage! :)

The end of June, I decided to go on a road trip with 3 of my sisters: Shirley, Erin, and Hillary and some of our kids...eleven to be exact! The fifteen of us drove to Missouri in 2 minivans for three days; stayed three days; and then drove back for three days. It was a ONCE IN A LIFETIME TRIP!! We had 2 teenage girls: Taylor (18) and Sarah (13) ; Marc (6); Breklynn (5); 2 four-year old boys: Hayden and Matthew; Taycen (3); 2 two-year old girls: Mary and Brielle; and two babies: Lexie and Wyatt!! In case you weren't counting that's 4 in diapers and 1 in pull-ups.

I found Brielle's TWIN!!

Brielle -1

Enna - 2 w/ her Grandma Barbara

Back of Brielle's Head w/ the beautiful curls!!


Top of Enna's Head w/ her beautiful curls!!

Both girl's birthdays are in September.

Brielle is perplexed...wondering if she is looking in a mirror!?!

Both girls are tall for their age.

Enna will be 3 mid-September and Brielle will be 2 the end of September.

There is actually no blood relation between these two girls...Enna is a daughter to my cousin Barbara's (in pic) step-son. (My Aunt Marci, my namesake, is behind the girls)

More T-Ball

T-Ball

Matthew played T-ball this year for the first time. We signed him up with the city league...he isn't quite old enough (just turning 4) but we snuck him in anyway since Uncle Corey was willing to coach him.

The first day proved to be the challenge - he kept running around where he shouldn't be and when they tried to get him to run the bases he just layed on the ground at second base!! Case in point that you should wait until your kids are old enough to be on the team!! :) We enjoyed watching him learn and Brandon was a GREAT help. I don't think he would have lasted without Brandon's help. BIG BROTHERS ARE AWESOME!!

The SCARE of my Life!!

This morning I left the house about 6:40 am to get Brandon to the high school at 7:00to leave for Band Camp (as far as I knew; the other kids were sleeping). I received a call from Brandon about 8:00 telling me he had forgotten his swim trunks (and allergy/asthma meds!); so all morning I was trying to get prescriptions filled and calling Sarah to "find" his trunks at home! About 10:00 I received a call on my cell phone from an unknown number. When I answered I learned that I was talking to a guy from the Health and Welfare office in Twin Falls, Idaho. He said they had picked up a little boy about 5 years-old by the name of Matthew Nite that was wandering the streets of Twin Falls at 6:45 this morning!!

At this point, I was panick-stricken!! He asked where I worked and could he come and have me identify the boy in pictures...and did I know where my son was. When I explained that my daughter, Sarah, was at home with him while I was working, he confirmed that Matthew had identified that he had a sister named Sarah; and another named, "Briella". I was just SICK to my stomach...but kept thinking "at least he's safe with the authorities" and "How the HECK did he end up in Twin Falls!?!". The guy asked me to call home and confirm if he was there or not.

I called Sarah and she didn't know where he was, but said he was "probably at Erin's house". She said she had seen him that morning in the bathroom about 8:00 or 9:00 (the panic began to ease some at this point because I knew it took longer to drive to Twin Falls than an hour). She walked to Erin's and was able to find him safely there!

As I was returning the guy's phone call, part of me was expecting him not to answer, and I thought maybe somebody was playing a CRUEL, SICK JOKE! He did answer and apologized for giving me ANXIETY!! Being the worrier that I am...I was still worried about giving all this info to a stranger: where I work, who watches the kids, their names, etc. About 11:00, I called our neighbor, who is a police officer, and had him verify the story for me.

Indeed, there was a boy found wandering the streets this morning...they had since found the mother, who's last name is different; and reunited him with his family. He does have a sister named Sarah, but he had misprounounced the other sister's name. When they pulled up information in the system, they "thought" he might have been saying "Briella". They had called my house and talked to Sarah, questioning her about a "Matthew" living there; and if he was visiting "Grandma, in Twin Falls". She gave them my cell number to call me (which was another question I had running through my head when he was talking to me).

Needless to say, I AM SO RELIEVED THAT MY KIDS ARE SAFE!!!! It's been a CRAZY day!